The Birth of the Anglo-Saxons: Three Kings and a History of Britain at the Dawn of the Viking Age

A brilliant, profound, and authoritative history of the golden age of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Britain. For too long, the eighth century has been a neglected era in British history: a shadow land between the death of Saint Bede and the triumphs of King lfred and the eventual unification of England. But before the victories of King lfred against the Viking invaders, the kingdom of Mercia--spread across a broad swathe of central England--was the reigning power that exercised central political authority for the first time since the Roman Empire. This authority was used to construct trading networks and markets; to develop strong economic, cultural, and political links with the Continent; and to lay the foundations for a system of defense that would be invigorated and reinvented by lfred at the end of the ninth century. Two kings, thelbald (716-757) and Offa (757-796), dominated the political landscape of the rising power of Mercia. During their reigns, monasteries became powerhouses of